Edi Rama’s best friend during the World Cup summer of 1982 just so happened to be the one person he knew who owned a color television. So every evening, Rama would find himself crammed into his kitchen with countless others, desperately hoping that the fuzzy, flickering signal would hold. Even communication with the outside world, particularly the West, was limited. Rama and his friends could only follow that World Cup through what he has subsequently called a “dark network” operated by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster. The commentators’ words, he said, “had the indescribable effect on us of not feeling alone in that black hole.”

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Persons: Rama, Enver Hoxha, Italy’s Tuttosport, Dino Zoff, ” Rama, “ Organizations: RAI Locations: Albania, Italian, Italy, Madrid, Tirana